“In every city the population has been divided for a long time past into the Blue and the Green factions; but within comparatively recent times it has come about that, for the sake of these names and the seats which the rival factions occupy in watching the games, they spend their money and abandon their bodies to the most cruel tortures, and even do not think it unworthy to die a most shameful death. And they fight against their opponents knowing not for what end they imperil themselves, but knowing well that, even if they overcome their enemy the fight, the conclusion of the matter for them will be to be carried off straight away to the prison, and finally, after suffering extreme torture, to be destroyed. So there grows up in them against their fellow men a hostility which has no cause, and at no time does it cease or disappear, for it gives place neither to the ties of marriage nor of relationship nor of friendship, and the case is the same even though those who differ with respect to these colours be brothers or any other kin. . . . I, for my part, am unable to call this anything except a disease of the soul.” ~Procopius, 532 AD
It hurts worse than the past two years, but losing in ’05 to the Steelers, and the crushing losses to the Jets and Pats in the years before, hurt a lot worse. The Colts had four defensive starters on IR, plus two key defenders who played with hobbling injuries. They got this far with two virtual rookie receivers. Disappointing ending, but a successful season if you ask me.
The nice thing about losing the Super Bowl (as opposed to, say, the divisional round) is there’s no more football season to rub it in your face for a few weeks.
I actually felt Manning played pretty well. The myriad of reasons Indy lost are fairly obvious. Garçon’s dropped pass, Reggie Wayne’s blown route, and some bad after-the-catch play by Collie were reasons. The one that sticks out in my mind the most is being too conservative just before the half. They should have tried to score.
The bottom line for me is that the Colts were outcoached. Sean Payton’s gameplan was really terrific.
And you have to be happy for NOLA and the Saints fans. They’re good winners. The two best teams in the league this year played last night and the best one on that night won the game. Can’t be too angry about that.
When I was in high school in the late 90′s, The Mudkids were the local hip-hop group. Ya’ll might think “hip-hop group from Indiana” is some kind of joke, but The Mudkids put on some searing local shows and released at least three pretty terrific albums. (Check some out on Lala) Rusty Redenbacher was like the poet laureate for the Indianapolis urban youth. I think Russ will grip that the mic to his grave, whether or not he ever gets his proper due.
During the last Colts’ Super Bowl run, The Mudkids released a great pep single. And they’ve done it again:
GO HORSE!
(And props to Russ for rocking the Marvin Harrison [my cat's namesake] jersey in the video, too.)
Pace lap of the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.
Going home for The Indianapolis 500 is more important to me than going home for the holidays.
I have seen 19 starts and 17 finishes of the Indy 500. (This was my dad’s 47th consecutive.)
My first race was when I was six years old, in 1989.
I didn’t go in 1991.
I missed 1996 for a school trip to NYC.
We went on Sunday in 1997 and it was rained-out. We went Monday and the race got started, but then postponed to the next day due to rain. I had school on Tuesday and couldn’t see the finish.
In 2004 the race was started on Sunday and then there was rain. My dad and I were certain the rain delay would last until Monday and we were wrong.
Open-wheel racing isn’t as grotesque as NASCAR. Most fans have their favorite drivers but few are deathly loyal to a team. IndyCar fans are not brand loyal to the sponsors of their favorite teams, either. In fact, sponsorship plays a much smaller role in the league. IndyCar fans are a more diverse bunch; rednecks, math nerds, well-to-dos, and lots of families all attend the race.
Most races in most racing leagues are a one or two week affair. Qualifications will be the first weekend or Saturday and then the race will be the second weekend or Sunday. But teams in Indy practice for a full week, have two weekends of qualifications, and then race on Memorial Weekend. (It is a tradition to skip work or school at least once a year to go hang out at the track.) For a month the town is visited by the same owners, pit crews, and drivers. The Month of May is capitalized in Indianapolis for this reason.
And then there’s the pageantry. A parade on Saturday, complete with Z-list and soap opera celebrities. Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle) and Florence Henderson (Mrs. Brady) sing songs before every Indy 500. The same bands and Scottish pipers march on the track before engines start.
Every year Florence Henderson sings “God Bless America”.
There’s always a flyover after the national anthem. This year was two vintage B-25 bombers.
Release the balloons!
Jim Nabors sings “Back Home Again in Indiana”.
This year we had incredible seats in the Southwest Vista, on the two-row deck. Nobody in front of us and only one row above us. In racing tickets height is valued more than position. The higher you are the more of the track you can see and the easier it is to follow the cars. We could see about 75% of the 2.5 mile track which is unheard of. We saw the end of the main straightway, all of Turn 1, all of Turn 2, the back straightaway, most of Turn 3, and way in the distance we could see Turn 4. Only the bulk of the main straightaway and the 3-4 short chute was obscured. Usually you can only see one turn or most of one straightaway.
The end of the main straightaway, Turn 1, the short-chute, and part of Turn 2.
Turn 2, Turn 4 in the distance. Look at the infield party on the mounds!
Turn 2 and the back straightaway. Turn 3 in the distance.
We had about six Tulsa, OK guys behind us. They brought with them (and shared) honest-to-god Okie BBQ made in Tulsa. (They had quite a time explaining the cooler full of meat to airport security.) Really nice folks. There’s a lot of assholes at The Race and it’s always good to luck-out with your neighbors.
We lucked out on weather. These days The Race starts at 1pm. Around 12:30pm I could feel the air pressure change and the humidity rise. The major gulf storm pattern went west of us (weather from the gulf in Indy is rare) and the much-discussed “pop-up thunderstorm” never materialized.
Helio Castroneves won his third Indy 500, a feat only eight others have accomplished. I love Helio. He’s a great driver, has a lovable personality, and he’s a great winner. Helio will be near tears one moment and then laughing like a child the next. He’s a very emotional winner, but a very disciplined driver. This spring he was charged with tax evasion and until a month ago it was possible he could have been in prison. He was acquitted just in time to race. His win on Sunday was not only a victory, it was vindication. Every Indy 500 winner has a story and this was a good one.
Helio Castroneves leads teammate Ryan Briscoe.
Helio wins!
Victory lap.
The Race as a whole wasn’t my favorite. It had the second-fewest lead changes since 1965. Nearly everyone was able to take every pit stop on a yellow flag so there was little pit drama or lineup shuffling. Helio ran away with it the last 20 laps; there was no endgame drama. (Danica Patrick’s car was running great, though. If Vitor Meira hadn’t have crashed [giving Helio the yellow flag pitstop he needed] and if Dan Weldon hadn’t been racing for 2nd place, Danica could have given Helio a run for his money.)
Not content to be furious on TV, my friend and I took it upon ourselves to watch another disappointing end to an Indianapolis Colts season in-person. This is the second time in fourteen months I’ve watched The Colts lose a close game in Qualcomm Stadium.
It stings, but it’s always worth the money. I’m not paying a truck full of cash to see The Colts win. (Thought it’d be nice once in a while…) First and foremost, I’m paying just to see the Colts. I don’t live in Indianapolis anymore and I will never regret paying money to see Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Bob Sanders, and the other favorite players that less than two years ago won the Super Bowl.
This time was extra special because I probably got to see the final game for longtime coach Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning’s #1 career target, Marvin Harrison, for whom my cat is named. It is widely assumed that Dungy is ready to retire. Marvin is owed $13+ million next year and his productivity has sloped-off so much that it is hard to justify the cost.
As for the game… the Colts sacked the Charger’s QB four times (including for a loss of nine that put a SD field goal out of reach), intercepted the ball, forced a fumble in the end zone, and still lost. If that happens, you deserve to lose. The defining play of the game: 3rd and 2, a little over two minutes left. Colts up by three. If they get the first down, they can run out the clock and the game is over. But the Colts’ running game is so anemic that they opt for a short pass to Addai instead of having him run the ball. SD covers Addai too well, Manning gets sacked for a loss of 8, and the Colts have to punt.
The Chargers get their field goal, send the game into overtime, and the silly coin toss one-possession NFL rules make sure that the league MVP never touches the ball in a playoff overtime scenario.
If the Colts had even a serviceable running game, they could have won. If they’d not had nine penalties for 74 yards, including a crucial overtime facemask, they could have won. This year, Indianapolis was a far superior team than San Diego, but on Saturday, they didn’t play like it. The outcome, 23-17 (OT), reflects the game accurately.
It was worth going, though. As much for the experience as it was to see my favorite players.
It’s worth it to find other Colts fans, people like you, in a sea of wrong.
San Diego Charger fans are awful people. They are the NFL’s Vogons, grossly overweight and vulgar, unintelligent to a maddening degree. The Charger fans were chanting on offense! Such rank stupidity! Why would you create noise when your QB is trying to make play calls?! If you go to a Colts game, you could hear a pin drop before Saturday snaps the ball to Manning. Who cheers when their team is on offense? Somebody who doesn’t actually know about football. About 70,000 somebodies.
Hoosiers are gracious hosts. We don’t like the other team’s fans coming into our house, but we’re gracious about it. Not so in San Diego. I had a 60 year old lady tapping my shoulder to yell in my ear every ten minutes. I loved it. I love the adrenaline rush of being surrounded by tens of thousands of people who hate you. I had a natural high just walking to the bathroom because I had to be on constant alert for pending threats. I’d pay $60 to see an NFL game, but I do pay $120 to see an away game just for the dangerous thrill.
Besides, it’s easy to lose to the villains when your heroes have already won. Norv Turner will never win a Super Bowl. (He’s the third or so worst coach in the NFL) I grew-up with lovable losers every year. My guys have already won one, more than I could ever dream for… everything else is gravy.
We found a small patch of tailgating sanity in the ocean of horrible.
The maddening thing was that this was a winnable game. This was a game The Colts normally win. Up by 1 at the half, with Peyton Manning’s offense on your side? No question. But Manning (as I predicted earlier in the year) just is out of synch with himself and his team. It doesn’t help that the O-line has had four different permutations in eight games.
Bob Sanders, Schmob Sanders, Melvin Bullit has been great. In fact, the defense played really well. They gave the offense three huge chances. They did everything they could do, especially considering how out-sized they were.
Marvin Harrison and Dallas Clark, you guys are on notice for dumb mistakes! Manning! Report to… to someplace unpleasant!
That handoff to Rhodes four yards back on 4th and 1 was a fucking disgrace. God, if there was ever a time to throw it to Dallas, that was it.
God. Ugh. If they don’t beat the Pats this Sunday, I am going to… well, I don’t know. I’d almost rather McCain win the election than the Colts lose another big game. They need this. They need it because if Buffalo gets the jump on the Pats, the winner of this game would have a wild card tie breaker over the other.
Ugh. It just smells awful.
At least Addai and Sanders will be back… oh, but Marlin Jackson — one of the starting corners – just got put on IR! FUCKING GREAT.
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